


Fire and Cinders

by ElenaRoan



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Australian spelling, Burning, Canonical Character Death, Fire, Hospitals, Medical, Minor Character Death, Not Beta Read, POV Dean Winchester, minor vometing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 23:18:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10729344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenaRoan/pseuds/ElenaRoan
Summary: What if Dean didn’t come get Sam when John vanished





	Fire and Cinders

**Author's Note:**

> Story Name: Fire and Cinders  
> Pen Name: ElenaRoan  
> Disclaimer: Don’t own any of them, written purely for enjoyment.  
> Warnings: Minor character death off screen  
> Summary: What if Dean didn’t come get Sam when John vanished  
> Timeline: Season 1 Pilot

He’d thought he could handle anything then his dad disappeared. He considered going and getting Sam, talking him into helping him find their dad. But Sam had never liked this life, he’d been at college for several years now. Trying to have a normal life and if anyone deserved that it was his little brother. So instead of going to Stanford and finding his brother he headed to the last place he knew his dad had been, Jericho.

He definitely could have used his brother’s help figuring out the crazy wall his dad had constructed but he got there eventually. Finding his dad’s journal nearly made him run to Sam all over again but he grit his teeth and stuck with it. Sam would be graduating soon, out of this life with its short lifespan and bloody ends. He was born to this but Sam could get out, Sam could be something more.

In the end it was a salt and burn, nothing he hadn’t handled before even if he had to dodge the law thanks to his dad’s credit card going belly up.

On Monday, once away from town, he checked his favourite newspapers. Starting with the Palo Alto papers. One article caught his attention and he felt the blood drain from his face. A fire at an address he’d know even drunk out of his brain.

He didn’t register making the decision, grabbing his things, or even getting in the impala. How he managed to not crash the impala as he sped across the country he would never know, nor how he managed to find the hospital and park.

“The paper said the survivor from the fire was brought here.” He demanded of the hospital’s reception, from the expression on their faces he probably appeared half deranged.

“Please…was the survivor Sam? Sam Winchester? He’s my brother. Please tell me my little brother is alive…” He begged and their expressions changed.

“He’s in the ICU, sir. You’ll need id to see him, only family is allowed in.”

“There’s only me and our dad and I have no clue were our dad is. Think he has a girlfriend though, does that count?”

Their faces shifted to pity on his last words and he felt sick as he realised what that meant.

“Oh hell…please tell me that wasn’t the other person in there…”

“Sorry sir.” A passing nurse or wards person or something was flagged down, “this gentleman has a brother in ICU, could you take him there?”

He really only hazily registered the person who promptly agreed and led him in the correct direction.

There was a gaggle of what looked like college age kids around a harried nurse when they got there, he wasn’t all that interested in what they were saying, something about not knowing how to contact the family of someone but they thought there was a brother somewhere.

His guide gave a rough explanation of why he was there to the nurse who had gladly abandoned the gaggle of kids to deal with the distraught looking man.

“Who’s your brother?” The nurse asked calmly.

“Sam Winchester.”

“Got some id? Only family is allowed in to see him.”

He fished out the id he only still carried in case he needed to prove his connection to Sam.

“Come this way please.”

He followed the nurse nearly robotically.

“How did you find out? All his contact details went up with the building and his friends had no idea how to contact you.”

“Saw it in the paper this morning.”

“Damn. That’s one hell of a way to find out.”

They stopped at a doorway and inside Dean could see his giant of a brother nearly too big for the bed he was in yet dwarfed by the equipment around him. He was on oxygen and it wheezed into the room along with the various beeps from the equipment. His face was pale and his hair was singed.

Dean swallowed as he realised how close it must have been for his little brother.

“He’s lucky to be alive.” The nurse commented softly, “the firemen found him in the room the fire started in, how he wasn’t burnt to a cinder is anyone’s guess.”

“May I…” He asked hesitantly.

“Go ahead. Stay as long as you want.” The nurse said, continuing when he looked puzzled, “the one who didn’t survive, she was found in the same room he was.”

“Oh hell.” He felt sick. If only he could believe his little brother hadn’t witnessed it, their family had lost enough to fire over the years.

He’d just reached his brother’s side when he registered the date for when the fire broke out the previous night and had to sit down abruptly before his knees buckled. 22 years to the day and he found himself hoping to a God he wasn’t sure existed that that wasn’t significant. That it was just a horrible coincidence.

“Oh hell Sammy.” He sighed, reaching through the bars to hold his brother’s hand.

He stayed in the seat as his brother slept, as the tube delivering oxygen was swapped out for a mask, as the sedation was stepped down.

He was expecting a violent wake up but it still took him by surprise when Sam woke with a scream.

“JESS!”

Dean was on his feet instantly, grabbing his brother’s shoulders as he lurched upwards.

“Whoa. Whoa. Sam. Calm down. I’m here. You’re okay.” He could hear the nurses come into the room behind him but he ignored them.

Sam gasped and looked wildly around, finally settling his eyes on his brother.

“Dean?”

“I’m here. You’re okay.”

“I…”

Sam paled and Dean’s knowledge of his brother kicked in from 18 years taking care of him. A quick glance around showed only a bin that could possibly work and he grabbed it, getting it under his brother’s mouth a split second before he threw up.

“Easy. Easy. It’s okay.” He soothed.

Sam started crying when he stopped heaving. The nurse lowered the rail between them and took the bin so Dean could gather his brother in his arms.

“It’s not okay, Dean. It’ll never be okay again.”

Dean shushed him gently as he held his brother as tightly as he dared.

A quick glance around revealed that the nurse hadn’t returned and the other’s that had rushed the room when Sam screamed had also left.

“It was the same, Dean.” Sam told him brokenly, obviously not with it enough to be careful of who else was in the room. Lucky for him the nurses had left, “Jess…she was pinned to the ceiling. Then the flames came.”

Dean felt sick, and if his little brother hadn’t needed him might just have made a dash to the bathroom himself. There was no way that was a coincidence, the date, the method, everything. It was deliberate, an attack on his brother from who knew where. An attack that disturbingly suggested the thing that had taken their mother all those years ago was back, and was targeting Sam.

“I got you. I got you.” Dean told him and hoped he would be enough to protect him. And if their dad didn’t surface after this then he…he was probably dead.


End file.
